The Templars Story
The Templars of Dawn worship Mystel , the Goddess of Fate. The organization was created by a small Elin called Aelwyna to protect Arborea from all the evil lurking within, when it was established that the Army of the Federation could not properly do its job, due in part to the corruption of some of its highest-ranking Officers. Another goal of the Templars is to learn as much as they can about the lost continent of Aden , and maybe try to find a way to travel there one day and discover all the mysteries and power that lie there... Here are some excerpts from Aelwyna's diary where she talks about the history of the Templars. Creation of the Templars Hello, diary !! I've decided to dedicate some of your pages to the History of the Templars of Dawn, the order I've created to protect Arborea from all evil !! In these pages, I will write about what's happening to us, I will try to keep it short and concise so that if some day someone finds this diary he can read it without dying of boredom !! So, first, the question all creatures ask me the most is : "why did a small Elin like you decide to create the Templars of Dawn ?" Well, the answer is quite simple actually : because there was nothing like that at the time !! It's no mystery to any of us that the Army of the Federation could not properly do its job, due in part to the corruption of some of its highest-ranking Officers (yes, evil mean old Samael, I'm looking at you !!), but also due to the fact that most of this Army was busy on the Northern Front fighting the Argons !! Now, the Argon War seems to have come to a pause for the moment, but who knows for how long ?? And besides, the Argons are not the only threat Arborea has to face, and the Army alone cannot take care of everything !! So, in light of all this, I've decided to create an order that would be dedicated to protect Arborea, the world that I love, from all kind of evil, someone had to do this, right ?? I would have put this order under the protection of Elinu, my Goddess Mother, but as she fell into her deep sleep following the birth of her children Balder and Ishara, I chose to place the order under the kind care of Mystel, the Goddess of Fate. At first, this order was very small, not many people seemed interested in the fate of Arborea ... even the bigger organizations didn't take us seriously, they were all busy doing their own things and didn't care about what was happening on Arborea !! Though, because I'm pretty awesome, soon our order got bigger and bigger, more and more people started to join us, so after a while we needed two things : a place that we could call home, and some Officers to help me run things !! So we jumped on our horses and lions, and we rode all over Arborea to find our Headquarters !! In the end, we decided that the little farm south-west of Velika would be the perfect place for us, so we can meet there and train our new members !! We then proceded to the Promotion Ceremony of the Hierarchs, Cardinals and Chancellors, and even if those Officers have changed a lot during the lifespan of the Templars, we still have kept this Ranking system !! The Mystel Revelation At first, the Templars goal was to defeat all those nasty monsters that were roamin g all around Arborea, so we visited a lot of different places and areas together, but all of this suddenly changed when I had a dream in which Mystel appeared to me and revealed that a great new evil was threatening Arborea ... I was one of her chosen Seers !! In my vision, Mystel told me that the Dark Elves, a long-forgotten Race that lived in an ancient continent called Aden, were planning the return of Shilen, the Goddess of Destruction, on Arborea. Very little is known about Shilen, as she is not a Goddess openly worshipped in Arborea... In my vision, I also saw a Blood Moon in a dark sky, under which legions of cultists were ravaging Arborea in the name of their unholy Goddess ... It was then decided that if this vision was true, the Templars would step forward and defend the land they love so much from this new invasion !! We then decided to take a trip to Allemantheia, the Elven capital city, and try to learn as much as possible about those Dark Elves, starting with why and how the High Elves and the Dark Elves got separated eons ago ... We learned that the Elves were once one single race, but that changed when the Conflicts of Immortals destroyed their civilization and split them into two factions. Most Elves became content with their peaceful lives in the woods, but there was a small group who was dissatisfied with this complacency. They insisted that battle should continue in order to rule the land - even if it meant the use of banned Black Magic. They were helped in their task by a Human magician named Dasparion, who taught them how to use the Dark Arts in exchange for the secret of the Elves' almost eternal lives. Learning of these events, the majority of Elves (known today as High Elves) banished the rebellious Elves, who had to leave the woods and find refuge in the underworld of the lost continent of Aden, where they pursued their training of dark magic and started to worship the Goddess of Destruction herself : Shilen. From this point on, they were known as Dark Elves and disappeared from the surface of Arborea. There was no book in Allemantheia about the return of those Dark Elves, or the Goddess Shilen (or at least we couldn't find any), so we were left on our own to discover how and why they were coming back to Arborea again, and what they intended to do !! In the light of this new threat, we decided that we needed to be even more strong, so we joined the Free Traders Alliance. First threat on Arborea We then proceeded to monitor any strange activity on Arborea, and soon found out that Basiliks in Chebika and Dracoloths in Seeliewood were acting all crazy-like !! At first we thought it was just some usual Templars business, protecting our land from the big bad monsters and everything, but when we got rid of some of them we finally discovered that their behavior was provoked by strange men, who wanted to destroy this area, acting in the name of ... Shilen !! Could it be possible that the Blood Moon cultists were behind this ?? This would mean that they were now all over Arborea ... While we were still trying to figure out what to do, Cardinal Starblossom, came to us with some worrying news : a High Elf archeologist and her Elin assistant went missing while they were researching the history of the Shilenic church and the Canti Shilenis. The Canti Shilenis The Canti Shilenis, or the "Verses of Shilen" in the common tongue, was a collection of spells and arcane texts dictated by Shilen herself to her High Priests, millenia ago when her church was still in official activity. Due to Shilen's special position in the Pantheon of Arborea, this magic was quite different from the rest - stronger, often a lot harder to resist or dispel, and sometimes even capable of terrible feats that normal magic would not allow. Because of that, it is believed that the Canti Shilenis was divided into 3 tiers, each only being made available to certain ranks of Shilenic Priests. One of those tiers, the "Red Tier", dealt with the corruption of living beings ... could it be because of this that the Basiliks and the Dracoloths were acting all crazy recently ?? And would it mean that some spells from the Red Tier were discovered again ?? It was decided that finding this High Elf archeologist and her Elin assistant was a priority. After some investigation, we found out that the assistant was held prisoner by the Blood Moon cultists in an old and abandonned temple, so we came to her rescue !! With her help, we finally found out the location of the first Tier of the Canti Shilenis, but when we arrived there, we were surprised to see ... a Baraka !! Apparently, the Archives called the "Tiers" were not books or libraries or whatnot, but "living knowledge" in the form of Barakas !! And the "Red Tier" was this Baraka we had in front of us, in a dark red robe !! A long discussion erupted between the Templars ... what to do with this Baraka ? Should we kill him to destroy this infamous knowledge ?? Should we move him to another location so that the Cultists couldn't find him ?? After hearing different opinions, it was decided that the Templars could never harm an innocent person, so we took him to one of the holiest places on Arborea, the Fountain of Shara, in hope that the place would protect him from any scrying device and that this information would not fall in the wrong hands ... We now needed to find the High Elf archeologist before the Blood Moon cultists ... again with the help of her Elin assistant, we headed to a region near Bleakrock in Westonia ... but instead of the archeologist, we came face-to-face with another Baraka, another Living Shilenic Archive, the Black Archivist !! As we were trying to think of how to deal with him, a strange Human girl who had been accompanying us for a while, revealed herself to be in fact a Succubus named Erzzebeth, and started to quote a Shilenic incantation to take control of the Archivist and its knowledge, and to plunge Arborea in eternal winter ... We were all watching in shock and despair, as none of our attempts to stop her were succeeding ... until the always-full-of-surprises Cardinal Kuroni interrupted Erzzebeth and using her powerful magic, found a way to take control of the Black Archivist !! Cardinal Kuroni ordered the Archivist to wipe out his memory and destroy any knowledge of the Black Tier of the Canti Shilenis, much to the great despair of the Succubus Erzzebeth who then vanished to report her failure to her Dark Lord Grazzt. I hope she got her ass beaten good !! We were all happy and I teleported everyone back to our farm ... well, not our farm exactly, as sometimes my teleportation spells go a little ... wrong ... but it's not my fault, it's my Sorcerer's book who probably got wet from all the swimming races that I do all the time !! Anyway, we took a little break from all this to celebrate our One year Anniversary !! Yes, everything that has happened almost made us forget that our Templar order has been created one year ago, time flies when we have to take care of all the important stuff on Arborea ... Blood Moon strikes But we didn't had much time to celebrate, as soon after, the Succubus Erzzebeth took revenge on us and kidnapped Maiyura, the little Elin assistant !! For the first time ever, Blood Moon succeeded in their evil plan, and without Maiyura we would have no way of finding the High Elf archeologist now, and to learn the location of the third Living Archive. We decided to explore Arborea inside out to find where the Blood Moon cultists could have hidden Maiyura, and in our search we stumbled into an old underground abandonned temple, with a strange faceless statue that could very well be a statue of Shilen ... for the first time, we finally saw what we were fighting against (and she looked ugly, eww) Inside this room was also a strange Monolith, inside of which we found a huuuuge staff, I couldn't carry it because it was too big for me so I gave it Chancellor Nemrod so he can examine it later on. But unfortunately we still couldn't find the little Elin Maiyura ... using the power of the staff and the knowledge of some of our Templars, we continued our search for her, the High Elf Archeologist, and the Third Baraka Archivist, and we ended up in Balder's Refuge. There, we found a grey-robed Baraka meditating ... wakening him up, he was very confused - and claimed to be one of the Archives we sought for !! He claimed he was the first Archivist and was betrayed by the cult, and now had to wait there until the Shilenic cult return ... he also said that Shilen was not a Goddess but in fact a Giant who wanted to challenge the Gods and form a cult to her own name ... obvisouly this Baraka was confused, so we did'nt really know what to make of what he said ... Lost in Baldera Following our different leads, we arrived in this strange and very-hard-to-find place called Baldera ... it seems there was a connection between Balder's Refuge and Baldera, both being strongholds of Balderian priests, could it mean that Shilen and Balder were ennemies maybe ?? In Baldera, we found strange scriptures on huge parchments (well, everything was strange there anyway), which seemed to be talking about a Giant-Goddess ... hmm ... we would probably need to translate them to see what they were really talking about !! But then a strange thing (another strange thing in this strange land) happened, as I was just chasing a beautiful butterfly but then got completely lost in Baldera !! When I couldn't find the other Templars, I decided to just sleep under a tree, and when I woke up I saw that my faithful Officers Sinesia, Dairuin and Nirë had finally found me !! But they said that a lot of weeks had passed for them, and just a night for me, it seems that time is working in a strange way in Baldera ... Hierarch Sinesia, who pretends she doesn't like me, was almost crying because she thought she would never see me again, she was so scared and worried, that was so cute !! Aelwyna's trip In light of all this, I decided that enough was enough, and that I needed to go for the source of all this evil, the birthplace of Dark Elves and the old Shilenic cult, the lost continent of Aden itself !! Of course, everyone advised me against it, but I must admit that I can be just a little bit stubborn sometimes, so I didn't change my mind ... I took my little boat and went on a sailing trip all over Arborea to find this stupid Aden continent and put an end to all this !! Unfortunately, I didn't find anything, except for maybe this : as I was going way way (way !) up North, past the Island of Dawn and everything, I saw a continent far away on the horizon that I didn't know of ... I tried to get there, but was blocked by huge waves and half-emerged rocks ... I stopped on a little island near there, and saw another faceless statue, just like the one we discovered on the underground temple a long time ago ... as I digged on this island to find some food and water, I found a beautiful green emerald, with a golden key locked inside ... it was so beautiful that I think I'm gonna make a necklace out of it !! After a while, having found nothing except this emerald, I decided to come back to my beloved Templars because I missed them !! The Seven Keys When I returned, Hierarch Dairuin told me that the key I found was one of the seven mythical keys that were used to lock Shilen into her prison, called the Blood Moon !! So that's was the Blood Moon was, Shilen's prison, and that's what the cultists are after, those seven keys, to free their Goddess and spread destruction all over Arborea !! While I was gone, the Templars also found two other keys in different places, so we now have three out of seven !! Still, so many questions are left unanswered : where is the little Elin Maiyura and her High Elf master ?? Have they both been captured by Shilen's cultists ?? What are the parchments that we found in Baldera saying ?? Is Shilen really a Goddess or just a Giant ?? What is the new continent I saw way up North of Arborea ?? Where are the other keys to Shilen's prison ?? Have the cultists already find some of them ?? That's a lot for my little Elin head ... to be continued ... Gallery TERA ScreenShot 20140302 174547.png TERA ScreenShot 20131229 185037.png TERA ScreenShot 20131222 183240.png TERA ScreenShot 20131215 184700.png TERA ScreenShot 20131208 190828.png TERA ScreenShot 20131027 181114.png TERA ScreenShot 20131026 171928.png TERA ScreenShot 20131008 211744.png TERA ScreenShot 20130908 185700.png TERA ScreenShot 20130825 174330.png TERA ScreenShot 20130602 180301.png TERA ScreenShot 20130602 174504.png TERA ScreenShot 20130421 181650.png TERA ScreenShot 20130407 174419.png TERA ScreenShot 20130407 173823.png TERA ScreenShot 20130402 223109.png TERA ScreenShot 20130324 170527.png